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Finalists Announced for 17th Annual Essentially Ellington 2012

15 High School Jazz Band Finalists Announced for 17th Annual Essentially Ellington

High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival in New York City, May 4-6, 2012

Ballard High School, Seattle, WA
Beloit Memorial High School, Beloit, WI
Champaign Central High School, Champaign, IL
DeKalb High School, DeKalb, IL
Dillard Center for the Arts, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Eau Claire North High School, Eau Claire, WI
Esperanza High School, Anaheim, CA
Genoa City Union High School, Lake Geneva, WI
Lakota East High School, Liberty Township, OH
Medfield High School, Medfield, MA
Mountlake Terrace High School, Mountlake Terrace, WA
New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL
Newark Academy, Newark, NJ
Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, CA
Roosevelt High School, Seattle, WA

Winner of Community Band Category:

Tucson Jazz Institute, Tucson, AZ

Who/What:

Jazz at Lincoln Center announces the 15 finalist bands and one winning community band for its prestigious 17th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival. The bands will compete and participate in workshops, jam sessions, and more, during a three-day Competition & Festival in New York City. The three top-placing bands perform with Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis, as guest soloist, followed by a performance by the 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra – whose members serve as mentors for the finalist bands throughout the weekend. The Festival’s finale is an awards ceremony honoring outstanding soloists, sections and the top three bands. The Competition & Festival is the culmination of the annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program (EE), which also includes regional festivals, teaching resources, a summer Band Director Academy, monthly newsletters, and more.

Judges: WYNTON MARSALIS, DAVID BERGER, BILL DOBBINS, JEFFREY HAMILTON, SHERMAN IRBY.

In-School Clinicians: RONALD CARTER, VICTOR GOINES, SHERMAN IRBY, TED NASH, MARCUS PRINTUP, LOREN SCHOENBERG, REGINALD THOMAS, RODNEY WHITAKER

Mentors: members of the JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA

When/Where:

Competition & Festival: May 4-6 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Final Concert: May 6 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, 7:30pm.

How:

Free tickets for each Competition Part will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, one hour before the start of each concert on May 5 and May 6.

Tickets for the Concert and Awards Ceremony are $20 or $25 and available now at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, by calling CenterCharge at 212-721-6500 or at jalc.org

For more information including background, a schedule of events, photos, audio featuring SiriusXM’s programs on EE, and more, visit: jalc.org/essentiallyellington

Background/Statistics:

Throughout March and April, Jazz at Lincoln Center will send, free of charge, a professional musician to each of the 15 finalist and winning community band schools to lead an intensive day-long workshop of rehearsals, lessons, and master classes. The free clinics are part of the rich 16-year history of this unique music education program, which has reached more than 304,000 students in more than 4,000 high schools across all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Australia and American schools abroad. EE has produced and distributed more than 120,000 copies of 98 previously unavailable scores and 237 finalist bands have traveled to New York City to participate in the annual Competition & Festival.

This year Jazz at Lincoln Center distributed more than 10,200 newly transcribed scores, reference recordings and additional educational materials.
While the music of Duke Ellington continues to be central to Essentially Ellington, in 2008, Jazz at Lincoln Center expanded Essentially Ellington repertoire to include other seminal big band composers including Benny Carter and Mary Lou Williams. The 2011-12 Essentially Ellington season is the first time in the history of the program that repertoire composed by Dizzy Gillespie will be included in the program. Repertoire includes, Duke Ellington’s “Riding On a Blue Note,” “Sepia Panorama,” and from The Queen’s Suite, “Sunset and The Mocking Bird,” and Dizzy Gillespie’s, “Night in Tunisia,” “Oop Bop Sh’Bam,” and “Things To Come.”
This year 1,715 high schools in the United States, Canada, and American schools in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, New Zealand, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and Zimbabwe received Essentially Ellington materials.
111 bands entered the competition by submitting a recorded performance of three compositions.
The entries were evaluated in a blind screening by jazz education experts RONALD CARTER, STEVE FIDYK, SHERMAN IRBY, and LOREN SCHOENBERG.
15 finalists and one community band were selected.

Quotes:

“It is extremely gratifying to see the results of the seeds we sowed 16 years ago when we started Essentially Ellington. The improvement in the quality of the bands down through the years attests to the artistic substance of Duke Ellington’s music. The enthusiasm and dedication of students, families, band directors, judges, and alumni testify to the timeless American values that define this competition and festival. I’m looking forward to hearing this year’s finalists; it is my favorite time of year.”

Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center

“As a former high school band director I have witnessed firsthand the power of Ellington’s music; it changes how young people view themselves in relation to our culture, their communities and each other. From the band directors across the country who tirelessly teach this music, to the parents who hear the hours of practicing at home, we are thrilled to provide a resource that brings together multiple generations of participants. As the finalists prepare for the weekend in New York, as we say here, swing away!”

Todd Stoll, Director of Education, Jazz at Lincoln Center

Sponsorship:

Founding leadership support for Essentially Ellington is provided by The Jack and Susan Rudin Educational and Scholarship Fund. Major support is provided by The Con Edison Community Partnership Fund, The Irene Diamond Fund, Gail and Alfred Engelberg, The Ella Fitzgerald Foundation, The Dexter Gordon Foundation in honor of Samuel Browne, The William Randolph Hearst Foundation, The Heckscher Foundation for Children, The Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation, Nathan P. Jacobs Foundation, The Mericos Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Surdna Foundation, and the United States Department of Education.

Reviews and Photos from Wynton’s Third Harvard Lecture “Meet Me at the Crossroads”

Wynton Marsalis: Telling a love story

Wynton Marsalis recently gave the third of six epic lectures that he is slated to give at Harvard University. He promised that this one wasn’t going to be 4 and half hours long, as the last one was. When he got started, the result was part history lesson, part concert, part spoken-word poetry reading. Three hours into the show, his agenda became clear: He was telling a timeless story about love. For Charlie “Yardbird’’ Parker, inventor of bebop. For Bessie Smith, teller of the low-down nasty truth. For Woody Guthrie, who sang about running from the law. For all those who sang about being both broke and broken-hearted. For every artist who cared more about art than celebrity.

Like every great blues man, Marsalis was lamenting the loss of something he loves. Jazz and the blues are falling by the wayside. Young people don’t understand how crucial this music is to America’s integration as a people. Identifying a blues song should be part of any citizenship test, he says: “If you can’t do that, you are not ready to be here yet.’’

Tickets to this extraordinary lecture series have been free to members of the public who get to the box office in time. Marsalis has even spent time teaching Cambridge school children. Marsalis and Harvard should be commended for giving these lectures to future generations. They ought to go one step further and put them online for the world to enjoy.

Boston Globe Editorial

Check these articles about the Lecture on Harvard Gazette:

- The melding of American music

- Notes on music’s lessons

Check some pictures from rehearsals, sound check and lecture

Wynton Marsalis returns to Harvard University for third lecture in series

Wynton Marsalis continues his two-year lecture series at Harvard with an exploration of root styles of American music in Sanders Theatre on Feb. 6. Currently the artistic director of jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis is an accomplished musician, composer, bandleader, and educator who has made the promotion of jazz and cultural literacy his hallmark cause.

Marsalis’ third lecture, “Meet Me at the Crossroad,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. and include musical illustrations by acclaimed musicians, including Doug Wamble (guitar and vocals), Herlin Riley (drums), Houston Person (tenor sax), Lucky Peterson (organ and piano), Reginald Veal (bass), and Brianna Thomas (vocals).

“The blues, American folk music, gospel, American popular song, hillbilly, bluegrass, country western, and jazz are root styles of our national music,” Marsalis said. “This lecture will identify the similarities and differences of those roots, and explain why they are musically compatible.”

In addition to his lecture-performance, Marsalis will spend the following day on the Harvard campus, appearing in a panel on “Educating for Moral Agency and Engaged Citizenship” held at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and co-hosted by the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Later that day he will participate in a discussion at Harvard’s new Innovation Lab to talk about the artist as entrepreneur.

Marsalis launched his lecture series last April before a sold-out house with “Music as Metaphor,” a two-hour journey through the history of American music, punctuated with performances by renowned bluegrass and jazz musicians. He returned to campus in September with a team of dancers for his second lecture, “The Double Crossing of a Pair of Heels: The Dynamics of Social Dance and American Popular Musics,” which traced the evolution of American social dance from the Charleston to the fox trot and the tango to the twist.

“Marsalis’ prior lectures have illustrated vividly the ways in which the arts have intertwined with the history and culture of our country,” Harvard President Drew Faust said. “Just as importantly, they have acted as catalysts for activity on our campus, prompting class discussions, inspiring study, and elevating the arts across campus. I look forward to hearing him again next month.”

In addition to his lectures, Marsalis has engaged in dialogue with students across the University and throughout the community, teaching a master class and holding a question-and-answer session with students from Harvard and local public high schools.

Marsalis’ lecture is one of several arts events taking place throughout the year as part of Harvard’s 375th anniversary celebration. The Marsalis lecture series highlights the University’s focus on the arts since a 2008 presidential task force called for increasing the presence of the arts on campus.

Tickets for Marsalis’ lecture at Sanders will be free. They will become available for the Harvard community Jan. 26 and for the public Jan. 27. For information on obtaining tickets.

Released today: The Music of America: Wynton Marsalis

From “Hellbound Highball” to “Happy Feet Blues,” this collection of works is the greatest retrospective of Wynton as a composer.

For the first time, Wynton Marsalis brings you this self-curated 2-CD set featuring ONLY his compositions.

Performed by a diverse group of artists including musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orion String Quartet, Mark O’Connor, members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Danny Barker.

Preview the songs and buy the album